GMÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Product Czar Bob Lutz told the media who had surrounded him like overly polite sharks looking at a meal that the likelihood that GM would produce a $2,500 car is highly unlikely.

Tata MotorsÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ new Nano is basically a step above a moped, which is what many folks in India are carting their families around on right now. He also noted heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d like to see which version of the Nano is available for that price, suggesting that the version that was rolled out for the media was going to be $2,500.

He also noted that GMÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Wooling Motors venture in China has been turning out $2,500 minivans and other small commercial vehicles for several years now and that it was ultimately not that big a deal.

Finally, Lutz reminded everyone that in order to develop a $2,500 vehicle for the North American market, there would need to be a demand for a $2,500 new carÃ¢â‚¬Â¦or even a $6,000 new car for that matter.

Ã¢â‚¬Å“You can get a seven- or eight-year-old Taurus with 60,000 or 70,000 miles on it for about that much money and will have a lot of miles left on it,Ã¢â‚¬Â he said after a speech during the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit last week.

Ultimately Lutz reminded us all that basically the way to meet the needs of consumers while achieving government-mandated requirements is not a moped on steroids, but working on a variety of new technologies simultaneously to figure out how best to make everyone happy.